Day 6 : Gyeongbokgung - Bukchon Hanok Village - Shopping at Dongdaemun

The sky seemed cloudy that morning; I prayed that it would hold because I was scared that it would be too hot and sunny. I chose to stay at near Dongdaemun History and Culture Park because I had access to 3 subway lines from here. This morning, we took the purple line to Gwanghwamun. And as soon as we exited the subway, we could see the statue of Admiral Yi San. 

Nearby was the statue of King Sejong, the king who created the Korean alphabet, the Hangul.

Ahead was Gyeongbokgung ... 

We reached there about 9.45 a.m. and there was already people waiting for the changing of guards ceremony ... we purchased tickets to go into the palace for KRW3,000 each. Then we hanged out at the yard to wait for the ceremony to start .... 

The ceremony was about 15 minutes long .... then we proceeded inside the palace. I was happy to spend my time here leisurely, taking in the views; it reminded me of my trip to the Forbidden City in Beijing. Only that Forbidden City was of a bigger scale and the time we spent there was too short and too rushed that I did not get to appreciate the place at all. In contrast to the Forbidden City, I went on my own pace .... and managed to explore almost the entire Gyeongbokgung. I enjoyed myself here a lot.

The throne 

We spent about 3 hours at Gyeongbokgung .... and after we exited, we went to look for Tosokchon to eat lunch. Tosokchon was famous for its Samgyetang .... many reviews online said the samgyetang was as authentic as it could be .... so when we finally found the shop, there was a short queue outside of the shop .... we waited about 20 minutes before we could get into the restaurant ....

A serving cost KRW16,000

There was free flow of kimchi and kkakdugi .... both were so yummy. I found the chicken soup to be very hearty and wholesome .... but it was such a huge portion that I was struggling to finish ....

After lunch, I craved for something sweet .... so I went to Ediya ....

Iced caramel latte 

Next, we went to Bukchon Hanok and spent some time strolling around the neighbourhood ... 

We chanced upon Choongang High School .... it looked so beautiful that I thought I was at a mansion somewhere in a small European town ....

Later we were excited to find out that it was the filming location for Winter Sonata and Goblin. Bukchon Hanok completed, we walked to Changdeokgung .... we merely took a photo at the entrance

At night, we went to get a toast from Isaac Toast ... just wanted to have something light after our heavy lunch ....

Yummy! Nicer than the one I had at KLIA2 ... 

And we went clothes shopping! There were so many buildings here with floors and floors of clothing retail ... 

Each floor had stalls upon stalls, all selling clothing 

Goodness! 

I bought a t-shirt for KRW10,000 ... that's the max that I would fork out for a shirt ... cause after conversion to MYR, it isn't really cheap anyway ....